new biographies

The Man Behind the Da Vinci Code is the first to chronicle Dan Brown's upbringing, his rise to best-sellerdom, the sometimes mysterious and quirky nuances of his character, and his recent struggles to protect a false sense of anonymity by drawing into a sheltered and isolated society of his own making. Through exclusive personal interviews with friends and former colleagues as well as newspaper articles and interview transcripts collected over the course of Brown's career, biographer Lisa Rogak paints an intriguing and insightful picture of the man Time magazine named one of the one hundred most influential people of 2005. (from inside jacket flap).



At only five foot two, Mildred Burke was an unlikely candidate for the ring. A waitress barely scraping by on Depression-era tips, she wanted more, and she saw her chance when she witnessed her first wrestling match. Even against all odds, she knew that she could become a female wrestler. What followed was a gritty, glittering testament to the golden age of wrestling, when beauty and brawn captivated the world.